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The Ancient Biblical Sermons Break All the Modern Rules - Maybe the Rules Should Be Re-Examined Msgr. Charles Pope • April 16, 2018 • The first reading from last Sunday’s Mass features an excerpt from St. Peter’s first sermon. The contents of the sermon are very similar to others recorded in the Acts of the Apostles by Saints Paul and Stephen. What is interesting is that these ancient sermons break almost every rule (written and unwritten) of modern preaching! Consider the clip from yesterday and not the areas highlighted in red:Peter said to the people:“The God of Abraham, the...

April 17, 2018 Tuesday of the Third Week of Easter Reading 1 Acts 7:51—8:1a Stephen said to the people, the elders, and the scribes:"You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears,you always oppose the Holy Spirit;you are just like your ancestors.Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute?They put to death those who foretold the coming of the righteous one,whose betrayers and murderers you have now become.You received the law as transmitted by angels,but you did not observe it." When they heard this, they were infuriated,and they ground their teeth at him.But Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit,looked...

Pondering the Great Reversal Announced in Scripture Msgr. Charles Pope • April 15, 2018 • One of the strong traditions of Scripture is of the great reversal that will one day come for many. I have often been sobered by it when I consider how blessed I have been in this life. I have also been consoled by it when I struggle to understand why some people in this world seem to suffer so much more that I do, or others do.Life seems a very uneven proposition if we only look at this side of the equation. Only God...

April 16, 2018 Monday of the Third Week of Easter Reading 1 Acts 6:8-15 Stephen, filled with grace and power,was working great wonders and signs among the people.Certain members of the so-called Synagogue of Freedmen,Cyreneans, and Alexandrians,and people from Cilicia and Asia,came forward and debated with Stephen,but they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke.Then they instigated some men to say,“We have heard him speaking blasphemous wordsagainst Moses and God.”27They stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes,accosted him, seized him,and brought him before the Sanhedrin.They presented false witnesses who testified,“This man never...

In Gaudete et Exsultate, Francis--who has abetted anti-life, betrayed the underground Church in China, sacked loyal priests, empowered homosexuals, rewarded abortionists, praised heretics, blessed adultery, profaned the Eucharist, and denied dogma In an apparent move to rebut conservative allegations that the pope has been denying tenets of the Faith—a crisis that culminated during Holy Week with the pope’s alleged denial of hell and the immortality of the soul—Pope Francis on April 8 issued his newest Apostolic Exhortation “Gaudete et Exsultate” (Rejoice and Be Glad), in which he bewails the “defamation and slander” being spread online by traditional Roman Catholic journalists...

You Are Witnesses of These Things - A Homily for the 3rd Sunday of Easter Msgr. Charles Pope • April 14, 2018 • Risen Christ Appears to Apostles, Duccio (1308-11)This Sunday’s Gospel speaks to the necessity of becoming witnesses of Jesus’ resurrection Jesus. It begins with the necessary foundation of the Church’s proclamation: The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon! (Luke 24:34) This solemn declaration forms the doctrinal certitude of the resurrection. On this foundation of the truth, the personal witness of every Catholic must be built. In this gospel we see how the Lord...

The comparison is obvious. A new Gallup poll finds a precipitous drop in Catholic Church attendance coinciding with the years of Pope Francis's papacy. Francis is known for shoving secular statist left-wing ideology into church teachings, through both his words and his deeds, just as Colin Kaepernick did with the National Football League. That's clear in what Pope Francis says and in whom he invites into the Vatican to provide advice. And surprise, surprise, the result is the same: the fans and the flock stay away. Breitbart reports: Catholic church attendance in the United States fell by six percent between...

Pope Francis is a Soros puppet. Soros has placed his boy from Harvard, Jeffrey Sachs, in the Vatican for the last several years as Pope Francis' handler. Notice that Francis pushes the exact same things that Soros' puppet US president Obama did: Global warming illegal aliens muslims ------------------------------------------------------- Jeffrey Sachs Encourages Catholic Organizations to Divest https://catholicclimatemovement.global/jeffrey-sachs-divestment/ Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and Special Advisor to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, expressed his strong support of the four Catholic organizations that announced their plans today to divest from fossil fuels on the occasion of the first...

April 15, 2018 Third Sunday of Easter Reading 1 Acts 3:13-15, 17-19 Peter said to the people:"The God of Abraham,the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus,whom you handed over and denied in Pilate's presencewhen he had decided to release him.You denied the Holy and Righteous Oneand asked that a murderer be released to you.The author of life you put to death,but God raised him from the dead; of this we are witnesses.Now I know, brothers,that you acted out of ignorance, just as your leaders did;but God has thus...

The Vatican has arrested a priest and high-ranking diplomat on suspicion of possessing, viewing, and distributing child pornography. Monsignor Carlo Capella served in the Vatican’s diplomatic corps since 2004. Ontario police accuse him of uploading child porn while visiting a “place of worship” during the 2016 Christmas holiday, USA Today reports.  He was most recently stationed at the U.S. embassy in Washington, D.C., but was recalled by the Vatican after the State Department notified it of the porn charges on August 21, 2017. American officials had requested that the Vatican waive Capella’s diplomatic immunity so he could face prosecution in...

The role of Christ Question: I want to sit down with my pastor and discuss why he has the laity proclaim the words of Christ during the reading of the Passion on Palm Sunday and Good Friday. He also has the laity wash feet, not himself. — John Liberatore, via email Answer: This was answered by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments in 1988 in a document entitled Paschales Solemnitatis. It says: “The passion narrative ... should be sung or read in the traditional way, that is, by three persons who take the parts of Christ, the narrator...

April 14, 2018 Saturday of the Second Week of Easter Reading 1 Acts 6:1-7 As the number of disciples continued to grow,the Hellenists complained against the Hebrewsbecause their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.So the Twelve called together the community of the disciples and said,"It is not right for us to neglect the word of God to serve at table.Brothers, select from among you seven reputable men,filled with the Spirit and wisdom,whom we shall appoint to this task,whereas we shall devote ourselves to prayerand to the ministry of the word."The proposal was acceptable to the whole community,so...

Two Questions on Creation Msgr. Charles Pope • April 12, 2018 • As most of you know, I write a “question and answer” type column for Our Sunday Visitor. (For those interested, back issues of my column are available here: Msgr. Pope at Our Sunday Visitor.)I recently received these two questions on creation:Q: I wonder if God has not finished creating the world, that we are still in the sixth day of creation. Then God will rest.Perhaps we can begin by distinguishing macroevolution from microevolution and Natural Law from natural variations within that law. Microevolution refers to developmental changes...

April 13, 2018 Friday of the Second Week of Easter Reading 1 Acts 5:34-42 A Pharisee in the Sanhedrin named Gamaliel,a teacher of the law, respected by all the people,stood up, ordered the Apostles to be put outside for a short time,and said to the Sanhedrin, "Fellow children of Israel,be careful what you are about to do to these men.Some time ago, Theudas appeared, claiming to be someone important,and about four hundred men joined him, but he was killed,and all those who were loyal to himwere disbanded and came to nothing.After him came Judas the Galilean at the time...

An updated survey from Gallup, which it has conducted every 10 years since 1955, shows that only 39% of Catholics and 45% of Protestants attend church weekly. Back in 1955, about 75% of Catholics went to Mass every week. For the Protestants, about 42% went to church weekly.

Four Qualities of Bold and Believable Witnesses to Jesus Msgr. Charles Pope • April 11, 2018 • It is worthwhile to look back at a text that was read on Saturday (Saturday of the Octave of Easter). It is from Acts and sets forth a picture of courage and holy boldness that is too little evident in many Catholics. Let’s look at the passage and then reflect on four qualities that the Apostles Peter and John manifest.Now when [the Sanhedrin] saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And...

Can a federal judge with rock-ribbed pro-life views set aside her personal tenets and uphold the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade ruling legalizing abortion? If she failed to tell Congress during her confirmation process about some of her pro-life statements, including promoting the dubious hypothesis that abortions cause breast cancer, should she even be a federal judge? Those were among the sharp questions that Wendy Vitter faced Wednesday (April 11) during testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Republican President Donald Trump has picked Vitter, general counsel to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans and wife of former Sen. David...

April 12, 2018 Thursday of the Second Week of Easter Reading 1 Acts 5:27-33 When the court officers had brought the Apostles inand made them stand before the Sanhedrin,the high priest questioned them,"We gave you strict orders did we not,to stop teaching in that name.Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teachingand want to bring this man's blood upon us."But Peter and the Apostles said in reply,"We must obey God rather than men. The God of our ancestors raised Jesus,though you had him killed by hanging him on a tree.God exalted him at his right hand as leader and...

There Has Been No Loss of Wonders, Only a Loss of Wonder - A Brief Summons to Awe Msgr. Charles Pope • April 10, 2018 • A big problem today is that of widespread boredom. With all the diversions available to us, one would think we would be one of the least bored generations in history. There are various forms of entertainment available to us quite literally at our fingertips: television, streaming video, radio, the Internet, video games, and more.Yet still it seems that we are often bored. The reason for this, I think, is that we are overstimulated.The...

As scientists, we are concerned about recent discussions regarding clergy sexual abuse. Numerous authors, like a recent Chilean post by Riccardo Cascioli (February 8, 2018), seem to believe there is a significant difference between ‘pedophiles’ and homosexuals. Indeed, Riccardo Cascioli re-makes a point often made: “the so-called ‘pedophilia cases’ are actually an overwhelming majority of incidents of homosexuality”[1] where pedophilia properly refers to the attraction of adults for pre-pubescent children. When such attraction is directed towards teenagers, one must instead speak of ephebophilia which is initiated by homosexual persons. This is what we are talking about in Chile, but it...